Betrayal

Front Cover
Orenda Books, Aug 15, 2020 - Fiction - 276 pages
A stunning standalone thriller from the Queen of Iceland Noir.

***Shortlisted for the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel***


'Tough, uncompromising and unsettling' Val McDermid

When aid worker Úrsula returns to Iceland for a new job, she's drawn into the dangerous worlds of politics, corruption and misogyny ... a powerful, relevant, fast-paced standalone thriller.


____________________

Burned out and traumatised by her horrifying experiences around the world, aid worker Úrsula has returned to Iceland. Unable to settle, she accepts a high-profile government role in which she hopes to make a difference again.

But on her first day in the post, Úrsula promises to help a mother seeking justice for her daughter, who had been raped by a policeman, and life in high office soon becomes much more harrowing than Úrsula could ever have imagined. A homeless man is stalking her – but is he hounding her, or warning her of some danger? And why has the death of her father in police custody so many years earlier reared its head again?

As Úrsula is drawn into dirty politics, facing increasingly deadly threats, the lives of her stalker, her bodyguard and even a witch-like cleaning lady intertwine. Small betrayals become large ones, and the stakes are raised ever higher...

____________________

Praise for Lilja SigurdardÓttir

'Tense and pacey' Guardian

'Highly unusual' The Times

'Smart writing with a strongly beating heart' Big Issue

'Deftly plotted' Financial Times

'Breathtakingly original' New York Journal of Books

'Taut, gritty and thoroughly absorbing' Booklist

'A stunning addition to the icy-cold crime genre' Foreword Reviews
 

Selected pages

Contents

10
Sunday 11
12
13
Monday 14
15
16
17
18
20
Tuesday 21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
Wednesday 29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
Thursday 38
39
40
41
42
43
45
46
47
48
49
Friday 50
51
52
53
54
Saturday 55
56
57
58
59
Sunday 60
Tuesday 70
71
72
73
Wednesday 74
75
76
77
78
79
80
Thursday 81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
Friday
93
94
95
96
97
98
Saturday 99
100
101
102
103
104
Sunday 105
106
107
Monday 108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2020)

Quentin Bates made his escape from suburbia at the end of the seventies as a gap year turned into a gap decade spent in the north of Iceland. He worked ashore and at sea before returning to England and, once finally ashore for good, drifted by accident into journalism. Finally the lure of fiction became too strong to resist. Sergeant Gunnhildur and the series of novels she features in have their origins in a deep affection for Iceland and its people, and an intimate knowledge of Icelandic society and its language, customs and quirks. Today he divides his time between the north of Iceland and the south of England, translating books from Icelandic in addition to working on his own fiction. Icelandic crime-writer Lilja SigurdardÓttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain, and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, the first in a new series and Lilja's English debut, shortlisting for the CWA International Dagger and hitting bestseller lists worldwide. Trap soon followed suit. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. Lilja has a background in education and has worked in evaluation and quality control for preschools in recent years. She lives in ReykjavÍk with her partner.

Bibliographic information